Not Any More
by Dobby's Elf
Summary: Draco Malfoy comes to a muggle town, there's a few reasons why he stays there, but one of them is Hermione Granger, he tries to get her forgiveness and a new friend is trying to help him, DMHG
1. The Young Man

_Disclaimer: I don't own Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger or any of the other characters from the Harry Potter books, they all belong to the great J.K. Rowling, nor do I own any of the songs in this fic, I only own the things that you can't recognise from the books or any other place like the town, 'The Second Home' and Julia, _

**The Young man**

In a little town, which was far away from any other town, a young man was walking down the street.  
The young man did exactly the same thing everyday.  
At 7 pm he would leave the pub he was staying at and take a walk.  
He would walk around the town and sometimes he would walk to the forest that lay a little outside the town.  
He was a very handsome young man, he had silvery blond hair, grey-blue eyes, he was quite tall and his body was very muscular.  
He was wearing a long black coat and under it he was wearing a black jersey and a pair of jeans.  
He stopped op to look at his watch.  
_"5 past 8, I better hurry"_, he thought.   
He hurried towards the pub, and he was there a minute later.  
He looked at the sign over the door "The Second Home" it said.  
This was where all the people, in the town came to relax.  
He opened the door and walked in.  
It was nice and warm inside, unlike outside where the wind and the temperature, showed that is was in the middle of November.  
The young man took a seat at a table in the far back, as he used to.  
There where a lot of people tonight, and he knew why.  
Everyday at 8 pm there would be a stage in the pub, and people where aloud to walk onto the stage and sing.  
And every night the same girl would walk up and sing, and everyone loved her.   
She had the most incredible singing voice and she was very beautiful too.  
Her name was Julia and she was the pub owner's niece.  
The pub owner Jack, walked onto the stage and took the microphone in his hands "Welcome everyone," he said while he looked around.  
"It is my great pleasure to introduce, my one and only niece, Miss Julia Jason"  
The girl named Julia walked onto the stage; everyone started to clap when they saw her.  
_"Yes she is definitely very beautiful"_ the young man said to himself.  
She had blond wavy hair that went down to her chest, deep blue eyes and her skin was almost milky white.  
She was wearing a pair of dark, tight jeans and a black shirt that said "The Second Home" in a lime green colour, on the back and on the front was a little green flower.  
She took the microphone in her hands "Thank you all, for that warm welcoming" she said and smiled at the crowd, "Tonight I would like to sing a song by Kelly Clarkson, it's called "hear me""  
She started singing,

"You gotta be out there, you goota be somewhere, where ever you are I'm waiting..  
'cause there are these nights when, I sing myself to sleep, and I'm hoping my dreams bring you close to me, are you listening? Hear me I'm crying out I'm ready now, turn my world up side down, find me I'm lost inside the crowd, it's getting loud, I need you to see, I'm screaming for you to please, hear me, can you hear me? I used to be….."

_The young man felt hypnotized by her voice, it sounded so beautiful, and he closed his eyes.  
He remembered the day he first came here; he was running away from the death eaters and the dark lord.  
"You can run all you want, but I'll still find you Draco!" an evil voice shouted out in the nigh "It is your turn to die Draco, but run, hide, I'll find you, you know I will".  
"Yes, I know, but it's not now" Draco thought, but he didn't say it, he just ran as fast as he could.  
The dark lord's words repeated themselves in his mind "I'll find you… It's your turn to die… run.. hide".  
But it was true, he would be found, the dark lord always got what he wanted, and he wanted Draco.  
It was his turn to die, the last Malfoy to die.  
His mother had been killed the same day as Dumbledor, and his father short after.  
It was a terrible memory, he didn't really care about his farther, it was actually a relief that he was dead.  
But his mother, he loved his mother so much, and because Draco couldn't kill Dumbledore, the dark lord decided to kill his mother, as a punishment.  
When Draco had stopped running he was standing outside a muggle town, "I'll stay here" he thought "he thinks that I hate muggle's, so he won't look here"._

He heard Julia's voice sing "…hear me" and then she stopped.  
He opened his eyes again.  
Applause broke out as soon as she had stopped; it seemed unusual loud, since it had been very quiet when Julia sang.  
"Thank you," she said smiling "I'm very flattered, but I think it's time for me to step down from the stage and introduce my dear friend" she jumped elegantly down from the stage and walked over to another beautiful girl.  
This girl had long, brown, curly hair and chocolate brow eyes.  
She was wearing a pair of jeans and a plain white shirt.  
This girl was the reason why he had stayed in this town.  
"Come on Laura" Julia said to the girl while dragging her up to the stage.  
"Ladies and Gentlemen" she said, while she looked over the crowd in front of her.  
"My friend, Miss Laura Dylan" Julia gave the microphone to Laura.  
"Ermm, I guess I would like to sing?" she said while looking sceptically at Julia.  
"So this is also a Kelly Clarkson song and it's called "behind these hazel eyes""  
And she started singing in a very beautiful voice.

"Seems like just yesterday, you were a part of me, I used to stand so tall, I used to be so strong  
Your arms around me tight, everything it felt so right, unbreakable, like nothing could go wrong,  
Now I can't breathe, no I can't sleep, I'm barely hanging on  
Here I am, once again, I'm torn into pieces, can't deny it, can't pretend,   
Just thought you were the one,  
Broken up, deep inside…."

Draco closed his eyes ones again, now thinking of this girl.  
_The first time he saw her, he didn't really see her, not the girl she was only where she came from.  
The muggle world.  
His farther had always told him that muggleborns were filthy and they had dirty blood.  
They weren't worthy enough to use magic.  
But Draco learned that this was very wrong._

"…I'm torn into pieces, can't deny it, can't pretend, just thought you were the one  
Broken up, deep inside, but you won't get to see the tears I cry  
Behind these hazel eyes"

Once again applause broke out in the silent pub, and the girl smiled, said thank you and walked of the stage.  
Draco watched her walk over to Julia, who was jumping up and down in excitement.  
"You very bloody brilliant Laura!" he heard Julia say while hugging Laura.  
Laura just smiled and said something, that Draco couldn't hear, but he could she her take a long brown coat on, while she was walking towards the door.  
_"She's leaving?"_ Draco thought to himself when he saw her open the door and walk out.  
He took two seconds to decide that he would follow her.

Outside the pub, he saw her walking down the street.  
He ran after her, hoping to catch her before she was gone.  
She was walking very fast and was at the end of the street, when he decided to call her.  
"Hermione.."  
The girl stood in chock, she didn't believe her ears.  
"I'm just tired" she said to herself, and she started to walk again.  
"Hermione, please, wait… Hermione"


	2. Convincing

_Disclaimer: I still do not own anything you can recognise from somewhere else, it belongs to J.K. Rowling._

**Convincing**

_"Keep going"_ she thought to herself _"you're just tired"_  
A hand was placed softly on her shoulder.  
"Hermione, please don't run away" a kind male voice said, the voice sounded so familiar yet so strange.  
"I'm sorry, I think you got me confused with someone else" she said, to afraid to turn around, "My name is Laura, I'm sorry I don't know a Hermione"  
The man walked in front of her, and she quickly looked down on her shoes.  
"Please, I could recognize your pretty face anywhere" the man said.  
She kept her eyes on the ground.  
_"No! This is not happening"_ her thoughts screamed _"how could he possibly know my name? how could he know I'm here? My friends don't even know"_  
She started to get very afraid.  
The man placed a hand on her chin and lifted her head up so she could look at him.  
"NO" she screamed when she saw the mans face "no, get away from me you bastrd"  
She turned around and started to run.  
"Hermione, please stop" he yelled after her "please".  
She suddenly stopped, _"wait was he the one who called me Hermione?"_ she thought.  
She turned around and looked at him, "What are you playing at Malfoy!" she said, while she found her wand in her pocket, and took a firm grib around it.  
"What are you doing here? You hate everything about the muggle world!"  
"Please listen to me Hermione…" Draco started but he was cut off.  
"Why are you calling me that!" she yelled.  
"Well it is your name, isn't it?" he asked.  
"Yes, but you always call me mudblood or some other…"  
"Yeah I know, that's why I want to talk to you" he said "I have been…"  
"No, shut it!" Hermione yelled "Leave me alone, I know you're a death eater; don't think that I don't know what you're up to" and she ran away before Draco got the chance to say anything.  
"I..I..I've changed, I really have…it's not like you think.." he said out into the night.  
He stood there, in the street and looked at the spot where Hermione had just disappeared from.  
After ten minutes he decided to walk back to the pub.  
He had a horrible feeling inside him, _"she wouldn't even listen"_ said a voice inside his head.  
_"Can you really blame her?"_ said another voice _"you have been really mean to her for all those years, and then you run of with the death eaters"_  
_"I know but I didn't want to"_ the first voice said _"I was forced, and I regret it all"_  
_"Aaand"_ said the second voice  
_"And what?"_  
_"You're in lo…"_  
A voice brought him back to reality.  
"Are you alright?" asked a concerned voice.  
He looked up, in front of him stood Julia, with a worried look.  
He hadn't even noticed that he had walked inside the pub, and sat down on a chair in front of the bar.  
"I'm fine" Draco said, trying not to look her in the eyes, and he forced a smile on his face.  
"Yeah right! And I'm the Queen of England!" Julia said sarcastically, "What's wrong?"  
"It's nothing" he said, he saw her disbelieving face and quickly added "really, it's just…girl problems, okay?"  
"Okay" she said, giving up a little "hey, know what help's on love problems?"  
"What?" Draco said.  
"Singing" she answered and pointed at the stage.  
"I'm not singing" he said.  
"Sure you are" Julia said and smiled "Just make the girl come in here, and then go up, sing and dedicate the song to her, trust me it works, tons of guys do that"  
"No, that won't help" he said silently.  
He started to feel really sad, _"she'll never listen, she will always see me as a death eater"_ he thought.  
"I think I'm going to bed" he said to Julia.  
"Alright then, but think about what I said, it works, just look at that guy" she nodded her head towards the man who was currently singing.  
He had a horrible voice and he was dancing around a girl while he was singing "Iiiiiiii will always looove yooouuuuuuuu" at the top of his lungs.  
The girl looked like she was madly in love with him and she had a big smile on her face.  
_"I wonder if she is under a spell, surely she can't be in love with that voice"_ Draco thought to himself _"no wait, I'm in the muggle world, they don't do magic, well is it really that easy then?"_.  
He walked to his room, quite quickly so he could get away from all the singing.

When he came to his room, he threw himself on the bed.  
He couldn't get Hermione out of his head.  
_"I'll never get her to listen, if I sang to her? She would run screaming away"_ he thought.  
_"Would it have been better if I hadn't followed her?"_ he asked himself just before he fell asleep.

Hermione was at home, and she was freaking out.  
"Why was he there? How did he know that I was there? Why did he call me Hermione? Is he trying to confuse me?" she said to herself "well if that's it, then he's doing a pretty good job"  
She sat down on her bed, and took a picture that stood on her bedside table.  
The picture showed 4 people, herself and her 3 best friends, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and his little sister Ginny Weasley.  
They were all smiling and weaving at her.  
"I miss you guys" she said and her eyes were filled with tears.  
_"This isn't right"_ she thought _"Malfoy knows were I am but my friends don't, that's so wrong"_  
She remembered her friends' reactions clearly; she had told them that she would be leaving,

"_What!" Ginny had said with a horrified expression "your leaving? But were you going?"  
"France" Hermione had answered; even tough she didn't want to lie.  
"France! Are you bloody kidding us" Ron had said "what do you want in France!"  
"I need to get away from everything Ron" she said while her eyes filled themselves with tears "I can't take it anymore, coming home to an empty house.. knowing that I'll never see my parents again.. It's to painful"  
"We understand Hermione" Ginny had said while hugging her "don't we Ron?"  
"No I don't understand! If you don't want to go home, then you can come and live with us.. Hermione you can't leave, please, first Harry takes of in the middle of the night, not telling us, and then sends us a letter that says; I love you guys, I'll write to inform you about the haunt…"  
"I'm not leaving you a letter that says; I'm leaving," Hermione interrupted "I'm telling it to your face Ron!"  
"Yeah maybe, but you're still leaving"_


	3. The Girl

_Disclaimer: Yeah, I still don't own anything you know from somewhere else, wish I did, but I don't,_

**The Girl**

When Draco awoke the next morning he got up and got dressed and then went down to breakfast.  
He was thinking about what had happened last night when a familiar voice said "'bout time you woke up" he looked around a little confused and then saw Julia smiling at him from behind the bar.  
"Good morning" she said, laughing a little at the confused look on Draco face "sleep well?"  
"Fine" he said while taking a seat in front of the bar desk.  
"Could I get a refill Julia dear?" a man called from across the room, pointing at his cup.  
"Of course Mr Fem" Julia said, while walking towards him with a coffee pot.  
Draco looked up at the clock, which was hanging on the wall.  
_"A quarter to nine"_ he thought, and started to look around the pub.  
_"Wait.. A quarter to nine? Oh no! I overslept! Not good"_ he thought  
"Julia?" he said looking around for her.  
"Yes?" she answered from behind him "what?" she said when she saw a scared look on his face.  
"Your uncle"  
"What about him?" she said starting to get confused.  
"Is he very angry?"  
"What do you mean? Ooh, no, no don't worry" she said when she realised what he was talking about "He's in London, remember? That's why I didn't wake you up; thought you might wanted to sleep a little longer than till 6:30"  
"Oh, right. Thank you" he said, calming down a little.  
He remembered the first time he had overslept; _Julia's uncle had let Draco work at the pub if he promised to be on time every day and did what he was told. One of the first day's there he had overslept. He had awoken at 7 o'clock to the roaring of a man's voice coming through the door, "...LATE! I TOLD YOU! ON TIME OR YOU'RE OUT! HEAR ME! SLEEP LATE WHEN YOU'RE OFF WORK! IF YOU LATE ONE MORE TIME, I'M GONNA..."  
And so the yelling went on the rest off the day and first stopped when Julia told her uncle to shut up for the 47th time.  
Julia's uncle was a pretty bad tempered man that liked punctuality, and Julia had warned Draco about that the first time they'd met._  
"So" she said, placing a plate with bacon and eggs in front of him "going to tell me what happened with that girl last night?"  
"It's nothing.. I just thought I could convince her.."  
"Convince her about what?"  
"About me being good" he said looking down at his bacon and eggs, which was placed so it looked like a smiling face "but she ran away, not that I blame her, I would do the same"  
"But she thinks you're bad? Why?"  
"That school I went to, she were a student there as well, same year as me. I were an evil git to say it mildly, and being that include to be very rude to others, and I were the worst towards her.. I called her names, really bad names and I were so mean-"  
"But why were you doing that? You're nothing at all like that now" Julia cut in.  
"I've never really been like that" he said "all the years I went to school and all the years I lived with my father, I've been acting, covering my true identity. You see the people that are after me, my father was one of them and so were the fathers of some people in my school, so my father had two of those people following me everywhere I went, like bodyguards, only they were spying on me for him, so he would know what I was doing and who it was with, mind you, he hated anything that was good and would've killed me if he knew I were good and therefore I acted like I were... well, almost like him" he sighed deeply.  
"Wow.. That sounds really harsh" Julia said looking at him with a sad glimpse in her eyes.  
"Yeah" he said "just thinking of the way I were towards her makes me sick, I hated it because I actually liked her, even though we hadn't talked or anything, I just.. I don't know.. and then last year.. it was horrible.. and now she probably hates me more than anything.." he sighed deeply one more time.  
"No, don't say that," Julia said, trying to make him feel better "I'm sure that when she sees the real you she'll love you" she said smiling "but that advise I gave you yesterday, the singing advice, you should properly forget about that, I thought you might had had a fight with a secret girlfriend or something"  
"Yeah, think you're right, singing would properly just make it worse" he said poking his bacon with a fork.  
"Julia, dear could I get a refill?" Mr Fem called.  
"Sure thing Mr Fem" she called back, "his 5th refill today, where does he keep it?" she said in wonder, then looked at Draco "Oy, stop poking that bacon and eat it" she said with a little laugh.  
After Julia made him eat his breakfast, Draco started his working day, helping Julia carry boxes with beer and soda in from the stockroom, sweeping the floor and loads of other stuff.  
When the clock turned three he decided to take a break, since there weren't much more to do.  
He took a seat at a table near the door when a man with a wide smile came running through the door.  
Draco recognized the man, he had been the guy with the terrible voice that had been singing when Draco went to bed last night.  
"Julia" he said happily when he reached her, she looked questioning at him then whit out warning let out at scream of joy "She said yes?" she asked jumping up and down.  
"She said yes" the guy answered beaming "she said I was the only one she could ever love"  
"I told you" Julia said jumping up and down even more excitedly than before "Oh, this is soo great, I'm so happy for you" she said while giving him a hug.  
"Thank you Julia, if you hadn't helped-"  
"It would have been just the same" Julia said cutting in.  
He smiled at her and then looked like he'd just remembered something "oh by the way, met that Laura girl just outside, asked me to tell you she wanted to talk"  
"Oh, now?"  
"Yes I think so"  
"Okay thanks," she said still smiling at him "hey, I'm expecting a wedding invitation"  
"Of course, you'll be the first" the guy said with a smile, while walking out of the pub.

Julia then walked over to Draco "could you do me a favour?" she asked.  
"Sure, what?"  
"Run this place for just a little time for me? I need to go see my friend Laura, she wanted to talk"  
_Hermione_ he thought worried.  
"Is something wrong?" he asked sounding a little more concerned than he meant to.  
"No I don't think so, then she would've called. But will you do that favour for me?"  
"Yes of course" he said.  
"Thank you darling" she said giving him a smile of gratitude.  
She took her coat on and walked out the door to meet the sight of her friend standing in the cold with a look of disbelief.  
"You talk to him?" Hermione said pointing at Draco who sat with his back against the window.  
"Yes" said Julia a confused "why?"  
"He..He..He's evil Julia"  
"No of course he's not evi-Ooh my god, it's you! Of course"  
"Me?" Hermione said looking puzzled "what do you mean?"  
"You're the girl!" Julia said smiling


	4. The Girl Talk

_Disclaimer: Still don't own it if you know it, I'm happy that I own Julia though, I love her, well I love Hermione and Draco as well but when I can't own them I have to get someone else, right?_

**The Girl talk**

"The girl? What girl? Julia what are you talking about?"  
"Erm.. Nothing," Julia said, remembering that her friend had no idea, whatsoever of what she was talking about.  
"Fine, can we please just go?" Hermione said looking back at the pub, and her eyes immediately caught Draco's.  
His eyes was not cold and full of hatred and disgust, but full of warmth and kindness, of course Hermione didn't see that because she had turned around and started walking away when she saw him.  
Julia turned to look at Draco with an excited smile on her face while pointing at Hermione and mouthing the words "it's her, isn't it?".  
Draco nodded his head and Julia gave a little jump and a silent, but excited squeal.  
"Are you coming?" Hermione called.  
"Right, coming" Julia called back, waved to Draco and ran after her friend.

"Redecorated?" Julia asked when they entered Hermione's apartment "I like the way the parchment sort of says, 'I don't want to be cleaned up'" Julia said with a little laugh, pointing at a trashcan, which was overfull, and at the floor beside it which was full of paper and old newspapers, that apparently had fallen to the floor after being put on top of the paper in the trashcan.  
"Oh, I just haven't cleaned lately" Hermione said, hurrying towards the place and stating to pick up paper from the floor.  
"Let me help you," Julia said and started to pick up pieces of paper from the floor.  
"Wow, is all of this letters?" Julia said in amazement starting to read the letter in her hand "do you really want to throw this out?"  
"Yes, it's nothing, really, just trash" Hermione said trying to snap the letter out of Julia's hand, but Julia jumped out of Hermione's arm reach and kept reading.  
"This does, definitely, not sound like trash to me," Julia said looking up from the letter "who is this Ron guy?"  
"No one, he's no one"  
"Yeah, well, 'no one' here really seems to be in love with you,"  
"I know" Hermione said with a sigh sitting down on the couch.  
"Is that a bad thing?" Julia asked sitting down next to her.  
"I... I don't know..."  
"Do you like him?"  
"Yes of course, he's one of my best friends"  
"But you don't like him romantically kind of way?"  
"I used to," she sighed again "but now, oh, I'm just so confused Julia, I can't figure out what I'm feeling anymore… or what I'm doing… it's like everything is going wrong for me," a tear fell down her cheek.  
"Don't worry Laura, you'll see, it's always cloudy before the sun comes out" Julia said and put a comforting arm around her friend, "you just wait and see, it'll all be better soon"  
"I though that, if I just got away… away from were the sad memories were… away from the bad things… from the quilt… it would all be better… but I was wrong," she said now starting to cry.  
"Laura you need to stop blaming yourself for that, it was **Not** your fault"  
"How can it not be my fault? I asked them to come get me at the train station-"  
"But you didn't ask them to be in a car crash, did you?" Julia interrupted "You didn't ask for someone to be drunk and drive, did you? And you most certainly did not ask for them to die… I know it may seem hard now, and it will always be painful to think of, but you need to move on, throw the bad memories away and keep the good one, even though it's hard, believe me, I know it's hard, but you just have to try."   
"I know but it's just so hard… I don't know how you could get through it," Hermione said wiping the tears of her cheek.  
"Well I did what my mother had always told me to"  
"And what was that?"  
"Singing" Julia smiled, "she used to say that, whenever I would feel down I should just sing and the music would make me feel better" she looked at Hermione still smiling "so, when my mother died and I came to live with me uncle, he gave me a present… he gave me the stage"  
"The stage? The one in 'The Second Home'?"  
"Yes" Julia nodded "he came up with the idea of having a singing stage at night so I could have a place to sing, and not just make myself feel better, but others as well" she smiled again "but was this what you wanted to talk about?"  
"No, not only.. I wanted to talk about… well someone I meet yesterday, he-"  
"Is it Draco Malfoy?" Julia asked and knew that she was right when she saw Hermione's face.  
"H…How did you know"  
"Well I didn't, I guessed it"  
"I don't think I understand?"  
"He's my friend Laura; he's staying at the pub, so that means that I do occasionally talk to him"  
"Friend? You're kidding me right?"  
"Afraid not"  
"But, he's evil Julia he-"  
"Yes, yes I know, you told me about an hour ago, remember? But you know, he really wants to talk to you"  
"You don't believe me? You don't think he's evil? I thought you always knew who to trust and who not to trust-"  
"I do believe that you think he's evil, but that being the truth I do not believe, and I do always know who to trust and who not to, and I know that he is trustworthy," she saw the disbelieving expression on Hermione's face and continued "I know that you went to school with him and that he was, in his own words; 'an evil git to say it mildly', and that he was mean to you, and I… I just really think you should hear him out, he had his reasons to be that way"  
"Yeah I'm sure he did… He hated me, that his reason! He hated me and my friends and that why he were that way" Hermione said, the hatred to Draco starting to boil up inside of her.  
"If you would listen to him, you would find out that, that's not the reason at all" Julia said in a calmly convincing way.

"Whatever" Hermione sighed "maybe, but I don't care, I don't want to talk to him, no matter what you say" she stated when she saw Julia open her mouth to speak.  
Julia sighed, "fine, I don't want to force you" she looked at her wristwatch, "Oh I have to get back to the pub, want to come with me?"  
"Not if he's there" Hermione said stubbornly  
"He is, I can't believe you first saw him yesterday, he's been working at the pub for a couple of weeks now"  
"He has? How come you didn't tell me?" Hermione asked confused.  
"I did, he's that guy my uncle yelled at because he overslept, remember? Well anyway, if you want to come when he's not there then come at 7 o'clock tonight"  
"Okay"


	5. Minor Problems

_Disclaimer: I still own Julia, isn't it lovely? I still don't own Draco and Hermione though, oh well I guess I'll live, right?_

**Minor Problems**

"Draco? What are you doing down there?"   
"Julia, it...it wo...won't work.." Draco said, sounding like he was about to cry.  
"What won't work?" Julia said as she kneeled down beside Draco, who was sitting up against the wall behind the bar.  
"That...That thing…" He said pointing at something behind Julia.  
She turned around to look, "You mean the coffee machine?" she asked.  
"Mmhm… I…I tried…but it wouldn't do anything..."  
"Did you try pressing the green button on the machine?"  
"The green butt…there's a button?" he said, looking like he was about to break down.  
"Don't worry Draco. I'll show you how to do it tomorrow, okay? But right now, I think it's time for you to take a brake" she said standing up and helping Draco get up.  
She led him to an empty table all the while Draco kept murmuring "The button…green…button…there's a button…it's green…a green button…"  
"Draco, don't worry, it's just a coffee machine...it's difficult the first time" Julia said, a little worried about her friends mental health.  
"Sit down, I'll go get you some-"  
"NOT COFFEE" he cried.  
"No, no, I'll get you some tea, alright?"  
"Not coffee…not…"  
_Poor guy_ Julia thought to herself, while she went to get a cup of tea for Draco.  
"Here you go Draco" she said and sat the cup down in front of him.  
He nodded, then looked at her as she was about to turn around "I…I'm sorry Julia…I can't even make a cup of coffee… I-"  
"Don't worry about it, it doesn't matter, really" she gave him a little smile and walked over to the bar to start taking peoples orders.  
_Why didn't I ever take 'muggle studies'?_ he thought taking a sip of his tea.  
He suddenly remembered why he had had to make coffee, _Julia had left to go talk to Hermione_ he wanted to ask Julia what it was that Hermione had wanted to talk to her about.  
He looked up to see if Julia was busy with orders or if she had time to talk.  
She was not busy with orders, but something else; a guy had dragged her out to an empty space on the floor and they had started dancing to a song called 'Temperature' which was playing in the radio.  
They did the exact same thing at the exact same time and it looked like they had been practicing it for a very long time.  
A girl, with long black hair, Draco had never seen before, went up next to Julia and started to dance with them.  
The whole pub was now watching the three teens dancing with interested expressions.  
The song ended and the customers in the pub started clapping.  
Julia walked back to the bar after talking a little to the two she had been dancing with.  
"What was that?" Draco asked amazed.  
"Hip-hop. We've been working on it for 5 months now" Julia said smiling.  
_Hip-what?_  
Draco smiled back "Cool, it looked good"  
"Thank you, the two I were dancing with are going to be in a dancing competition next month, so I've been practicing with them, mostly because I didn't have anything better to do" she said with a little laugh.  
"Are you going to be in a competition too then?"  
"No, I'm not; I'm more to singing than dancing you know"  
"Yeah, but you could be in a singing competition then"  
"What is this with you and competitions?" she laughed  
_Good question_  
"Erm.. So what was it that herm… I mean Laura wanted to talk to you about?"  
_That was close_  
"Oh, nothing… She's just having a little hard time with some things" she said, then looked up at Draco "I know you like her Draco, but, I think it's going to take some time before she'll want to talk to you" she looked a little sad "I tried to talk to her, but I don't think it worked very well"  
"It's alright… but, thank you…" he said.  
Julia gave a weak smile and nodded as if saying 'you're welcome'  
The next couple of hours went by very slowly for Draco, he kept thinking about Hermione and if she would ever believe him, or even listen to him.  
Since he had tried to talk to her the day before, and it had went horrible wrong, he had kept thinking about if he could ever have a future with her, as he had dreamed about for so long now.  
But as the minutes went by, the dream seemed to move longer and longer away from him.  
The dream of Hermione forgiving him, and the two of them being together began to change slowly to a nightmare where Hermione kept running away from him.  
He was brought back to the pub by a sound he hadn't got used to yet, the ringing of a phone, **Riiiing, Riiiiiing**  
"Uuh, phone!" Julia yelled running towards the phone when,  
**_CRASH_**  
Julia tripped over a pair of shoes, which Draco thought was very weird because he couldn't think of anyone that would take their shoes of in a pub.  
"Bloody!" Julia cried from the floor  
"Julia, are you alright?" Draco asked worried, as he hurried towards her.  
**Riiiing, Riiiiiing**   
"Yes I'm fine, Oh could you please get the phone?" she said as she tried to sit up.  
"Erm, Yeah, sure.." he said a little nervous, he hadn't really figured out how exactly you used a phone yet, but he had seen Julia do it a couple of times.  
Hoping he was doing it right he picked up the phone and put one of the ends to his ear.  
"He-hello?" he said in a shaky voice.  
"Hello?" Hermione's voice sounded in the other end, Draco's heart skipped a beat "Erm, is Julia there?" she asked.  
"Hermione" he said, and the same second he said it, wished he hadn't.  
"I- MALFOY?!" her voice sounded terrified "Where's Julia? What have you done to her?"  
"No, no I haven't done anything to her, I swear!"  
"Then let me talk to her!"  
"Yes yes, of course" he said and took the phone and placed it at the floor next to Julia,  
"For you" he said to her.  
"Hello?" Julia said into the phone, "No, no Laura nothing's wrong… what? NO! Of course not. No, no I tripped over some guys shoes. Yes I swear. Yes, alright, I'll be out in five minutes then, yeah bye."

She put the phone down again and looked up at Draco, who had been standing and listening to her.  
"Could you give me a hand?" she asked him.  
He helped her up and took the phone of the floor.  
"I'm just going to go outside and talk to her, okay? I'll be right back, no need to try and make coffee again" she smiled.  
Draco knew that she was trying to make him feel better after the accusing of hurting her, but it didn't help.  
_Hermione thought I would hurt Julia so she wouldn't get to the phone?_ he thought as he watched Julia walk outside to meet Hermione.


	6. The Letter

_Disclaimer: I own, eerm, well yeah, I still own the things you can't recognise from anywhere else, the other things are either J.K. Rowling's or some singer's,_

**The Letter**

"What's up?" Julia asked Hermione when she came outside,  
"Erm, I…I need your help" she gave Julia something that looked like a letter.  
Julia took it, opened it and started reading.

_My Dearest Hermione,  
Why haven't you written me back? Did I do something wrong? Didn't you get my letters?  
I must've like send you 50 of them since you left.  
Please... how are you? Are you alright? You're not hurt right? Please don't be hurt…  
Please, Hermione, come back, please, you can live with us; you don't have to go back to your old home…  
I miss you so much Hermione...  
I want to see you, please, I could come and visit you in France, you were staying in Paris with your cousin, right?  
I could come next week?  
If you don't write me back, I'm coming next week, no matter what alright?  
Oh, please be alright Hermione, it's not like you to not answer letters…_

Love,  
Yours forever,  
Ron

"you got it just now?" Julia asked, looking up from the letter.  
"Yes" Hermione answered, sounding a little nervous "I don't know what to do, please help Julia,"  
"You told him you were living in France?" Julia asked looking at the letter again "with your cousin?"  
"Y…yes…"  
"Well Paris is a big city right? It would take days to find someone without the address won't it?"  
"Well yes, but, erm… he has the address so it won't be that hard"  
"Oh… I see… Well, why don't you just write to him then?" Julia asked.  
"I don't know what to write…" Hermione said looking sad.  
"Come on," Julia said gesturing for Hermione to walk inside the pub "I'll find some paper and help you write a letter, okay?"  
Hermione nodded and walked inside the nicely warmed pub.  
"Have a seat, I'll get us some tea and then we'll write" Julia said and walked away.  
Hermione found a free table by the window and sat down and took her coat of.  
She looked around at the half full pub; some people were talking, some arguing and some minding their own business and a man, without his shoes on, were sitting at the bar reading the news paper.  
Hermione's eyes fell on a handsome blond guy, who was cleaning one of the tables.  
She watched as he finished cleaning the table and stood up to look around.  
His eyes caught Hermione's.  
He gave her a weak little smile and looked extremely nervous.  
Hermione was stunned, _I've never seen him nervous before,_ she thought.  
Suddenly, realising that she were still looking him in the eyes she turned her eyes to look at the table.  
She was clutching the letter, from Ron, tightly in her hand.  
She took a deep breath and opened the letter and reread it one more time.  
"Here you go" Julia said as she placed the tea cups at the table "Ready to write that letter?"  
Hermione took a sip of her tea "Yeah, I guess"  
They had sat for a little while and talked, about what Hermione could write to Ron, when they were disturbed.  
"Erm, Julia?" Draco's voice called through the pub.  
"Yes?" she called back, looking over her shoulder.  
"Er, this guy wants coffee" he called while pointing at the man in front of him.  
Hermione noticed that the man looked from Draco to Julia with a very confused look and she knew that she had the same look painted on her face.  
Julia started laughing, "I'll be right there" she called and turned to Hermione.  
"He doesn't know how to make coffee yet" she told her "you should've seen him earlier; he looked like he was on the edge of a nervous breakdown because he couldn't get the coffee machine to work" she stood up, "be right back" and she walked over to where Draco and the man stood.  
_Malfoy? On the edge of a nervous breakdown? And that nervous smile? And yesterday? What's going on here? Has he actually changed or is he just trying to make me believe that?_  
A large **_CRASH_** brought Hermione back from her thoughts.  
She looked around, trying to figure out where the _crash_ came from or what had caused it.  
Her eyes fell on Draco who was laying flat on the floor.  
"Aaaaooh" he moaned as he pulled himself up from the floor.  
"Are you alright?" Julia asked, Draco nodded and Julia turned to look at the man who was reading the news paper at the bar "Would you _please_ put your shoes back on! This is the second time someone-"  
Hermione didn't hear the rest, but she was instead looking at Draco.  
He was now sitting on a bar chair, his back leaned against the wall and one of his hands pressing his forehead.  
He slowly removed his hand and Hermione gasped as she saw blood dripping from a large cut on his forehead.


	7. The Cut

_Disclaimer: I still don't own any of the things that you know from the Harry Potter books or the songs, only my dear Julia and my pub, and the other things that does not belong to J.K. Rowling_

**The Cut**

"Bloody" Draco muttered to himself as he looked at his hand "in more than one way".  
He looked around, trying to find some paper napkins but it seemed like they were all gone.  
He sighed deeply, and winced as the pain in his forehead seemed to grow worse.  
He moved his hand to his forehead once again and closed his eyes, wishing the pain would go away.  
He could hear someone walk towards him, but didn't bother opening his eyes to look who it was.  
Someone pulled his arm.  
He opened his eyes and looked right into a beautiful pair of brown eyes.  
"Come on," Hermione whispered, looking a little worried, and started to drag him towards the door.  
Draco didn't say anything, he just followed after her.  
_She looked worried_ he thought _and she didn't sound mad or anything_  
They were now outside the pub, Hermione looked nervously around, then dragged him a little longer away from the pub.

"Here" she said and opened a door, they walked inside a shop full of bookshelves full of all kinds of books.  
Hermione dragged him up some stairs and opened another door and walked inside, Draco right behind her.  
"Take a seat" she said as she walked through another door.  
Draco sat down on a black couch in front of him and looked around.  
On one side of the room there were two bookshelves, full of books like the ones downstairs, on the other side there were a table, which were completely covered in paper and books, next to it were an overfull trashcan and paper seemed to have fallen out of it, because the floor around it was full of paper.  
Hermione came back in with a rag and a little bowl with hot water.  
She placed the bowl on a table, which stood in front of the couch, and sat down next to Draco, she soaked the rag and twisted it.  
She then pulled Draco's hand away from his forehead and started to clean the cut with the rag in her hand.  
He looked at her and saw her eyes were fixed at his forehead, was she actually helping him or was it just his imagination?  
She removed the rug from his head and laid it on the table, she pulled something out of the back pocket in her jeans.  
_Oh no!_ he thought _I knew it was to good to be true_  
She pointed her wand at his forehead, and Draco quickly covered his head with his hands.  
"I'm just going to heal your cut" she said.  
"Oh…erm…I-"  
"Try to sit still" she said pointing her wand at his cut, she muttered a spell and the cut on his forehead slowly disappeared and he felt the pain leave his head.  
"There," she said, looking into his eyes.  
"Tha...thank you" he said, touching his forehead with his fingers.  
The next few minutes, they sat on the couch not saying anything, Draco was afraid that he might would scare her off again.  
Hermione was the first to break the silence "What are you doing here?" she said.  
"Erm, well, I don't know, you brought me here" Draco said a little confused.  
"No. Not _here_, I mean here, in the town…" she said a little impatient.  
"Oh…I guess you could say I'm…hiding…" he said with a sad look on his face.  
"Hiding? From what?" she asked.  
"You-know-who…and his death eaters…"  
"Why are you hiding from them? I thought you were one of them…"  
"I'm not, and I've never been" he said looking into her eyes "I'm hiding from them because they're after me…they want to kill me…" he looked away from her, but he knew that she kept looking at him.  
"They…want to kill…you?"  
He nodded his head "after I couldn't kill Dumbledore, they came after me and my family… they killed my…" he started to get tears in his eyes "they killed my….my mother…" he said as he felt the tears stream down his cheeks "they killed her because of me" his voice shaking.


	8. Forgive Me

_Disclaimer: Yeah, you know what doesn't belong to me and what does,_

**Forgive Me**

Hermione didn't know what to feel or what to think.  
If someone had told her that one day Draco Malfoy, the slytherin badass, would be sitting in front of her crying she would have told them that they were the biggest liars ever.  
But here he was, crying, and Hermione didn't know what to do.  
Somehow she felt pity for him, she knew only to well how painful it was to loss your parents, and to fell that you were the one that was the reason for their dead.  
Thinking about her own parents made tears start building up in her eyes, but she didn't want to cry, at least not in front of him.  
She thought about what Julia had told her earlier; _…it was **Not** your fault...you didn't ask them to be in a car crash, did you? You didn't ask for someone to be drunk and drive, did you? And you most certainly did not ask for them to die…_  
Why did Julia have to be so good with feelings and saying the right things?  
After all Hermione knew that Julia had been right, she hadn't asked for them to die, or for someone to be so stupid that he would drink and drive, it wasn't her fault.  
But still she couldn't help feeling guilty.  
She had been so far away in her thoughts that she had completely forgotten that she wasn't alone.  
She looked at Draco, who's eyes were now red from crying and tears still falling from them.  
"I'm…I'm so sorry Malfoy…" Hermione said in a weak voice "I know how you feel" a tear ran down her cheek "my…my parents…they…died…in a car crash the day we came back from Hogwarts"  
Draco turned to look at Hermione, "Hermione…" _He did it again, he called me Hermione,_ she thought as Draco continued "…I'm sorry…you seemed close to your parents…it must've been harder for you than for me" the last he said more to himself than to her.  
"What do you mean, it must've been just as hard for you as for me" she said and looked him into the eyes, she could see some feeling form in his eyes, but she couldn't put a word to what it was.  
Was it hate, sadness, sorrow, or love, it seemed like it was all there.  
"It was hard to lose my mother," he said, still with tears in his eyes "I loved her so much… she was they only good thing at home…but as for my father…it was a relief when he died… he was always mean to my mother and I…especially because I didn't turn out to be as he wanted…"  
_As he wanted?_ Hermione thought, and as if he knew what she was thinking, Draco carried on "A death eater…A muggle hater… he wanted me to be like the person I've always pretended to be… the person that was mean to you… and your friends…" he looked deep into her eyes, and she could see something that she was very surprised to see, his eyes had an apologizing, almost begging look.  
"I'm so sorry Hermione… I… Please forgive me… I've hated all these years were I had to be mean to you… were I had to call you names…I…please…I know I don't deserve it…but please give me another chance…please Hermione" he said in a begging voice.  
Hermione, ones again, didn't know what to think.  
_I could give him a second chance_ said a voice inside her head _He really seems to be telling the truth._.  
Then another voice spoke inside her head _Come on Hermione, just because his parents have died too and he cried in front of you, it doesn't mean that he deserves another chance, he could be playing a trick on you, I mean after all he **is** Malfoy, the muggle hating prat, it could be something he was told to do by You-know-who, to find out where Harry are._  
Hermione somehow felt that, that had not been her own self speaking.  
She saw him cry, she saw the pain and the guilt in his eyes, she saw the apologizing look.  
_And the way he call you Hermione_ the first voice, that she was her own, said _he don't say it with hate or disgust_  
No that's right, he don't, and the way he had looked nervous earlier when she had looked at him, and that little smile.  
"No" Hermione said in a firm voice.  
Draco looked very hurt and his eyes were full of sadness.  
"I…I…understand...I…don't deserve your forgiveness…" he sighed deeply "I'm sorry…I won't bother you anymore" what looked like another little tear found it's way down his cheek as he turned around "I'll leave now…don't worry…" he turned his head to look at Hermione "I'm sorry…".  
He walked towards the door with another tear falling from his eye.


	9. An Idea

_Disclaimer: Do I really have to say it again ? You already know, the Harry Potter stuff does not belong to me,_

**An Idea**

_I should have known, well I did, but it's always nice to dream_ Draco thought sadly to himself when he was walking towards the door, towards the life without her.  
"No" Hermione's voice came from behind him, "No, I mean…Erm…well…I'll give you a second chance" her voice sounded slightly nervous.  
Draco, who had turned around to look at Hermione, had a beaming smile on his face as he said "Really? Thank you Hermione. Thank you for believing me…you have no idea of how much this means to me…thank you"  
Hermione couldn't help but smile when she saw Draco's face and his beaming smile.  
"You're welcome, I guess" she smiled.  
Draco wanted to hug her, but thougt better of it, he didn't want to freak her out now when she had just forgiven him.  
His thoughts must've been show in his face and body because Hermione seemed to have noticed it and now looked a little nervous.  
Draco didn't think much of it though, he was just so happy that she had forgiven him and he didn't know what to do with himself, _I'm going to do something for her, something to show her that I'm really telling the truth,_ he thought and then got, what he thought to be, a brilliant idea.  
"Will you come to 'The Second Home' tonight? At 8? Please, it would mean so much to me" he said hoping that she would say yes.  
"Eerm.." she said looking at him, at his hopeful face, then she said "sure, why not,"  
If it was possible he looked even happier than he had done just a minute before.

"Sir! For the tenth time, Will you _Please_, put your shoes back on, or else I'm going to have to ask you to leave" Julia said in an annoyed voice, which was very unusual to hear from her.  
"But that's not as comfortable" said the man who was sitting at the bar, still without his shoes, in a stubborn tone.  
"I don't care if it's more comfortable, people keep falling over your shoes! Either put them on or leave!" Julia replied, her voice had a hint of anger in it.  
The man heard the hint of anger and quickly put his shoes on, Julia usually didn't get mad easily so this was a sign of danger.  
"Thank you," she said and looked over at the door as she heard it open.  
"Where were you?" Julia called across the room to Draco, "No wait don't tell me, I think I already know" she said with a smile as Draco came over and sat down at the bar, "Did you two have nice talk?" she asked, Draco looked a bit surprised at her, "oh come on, you didn't think it would be very hard for me to figure out where you went did you?" she looked at Draco, who still looked surprised and continued "one minute my two friends are sitting in each end of the room and I am busy with convincing a guy to put on his shoes, then the next minute when I look up, both of my friends are gone and now you come walking in here with that big smile. The way I see it, it can only mean one thing; that you went with Laura and you two got things sorted out," she said the last with a proud smile on her face.  
"Wow, you figured it out just by that?" Draco asked in amazement.  
"No. Honestly, I'm a mind reader, I just didn't want to tell you, but, well, now you know" she joked with a grin on her face.  
_In my world that could might as well have been the truth,_ Draco thought and laughed a little.  
He looked up at the watch on the wall, _6.30 pm_, it said.  
"Julia?" he asked.  
"Yes?" she said looking at him while pouring tea up in a cup.  
"Could you, maybe, help me…with something?"  
"Sure, what it is?"  
"Eerm.. Well, I was thinking that.. eer.. I would like to sing tonight"  
"Really?" Julia said, sounding a little surprised but with a great smile on her face.  
"Yeah. Eerm.. It's a song I heard on the radio one of the first days I was here, and…erm… I thought it would be good…you know, to sing" Draco said, remembering the song clearly in his mind.  
Julia had a bright smile on her face, "You'll be the first to sing if you want" she said.


	10. The Reason

_Disclaimer: I do not own Draco or Hermione or all the things you know I don't own. I don't own the song either, it is one of my favourites but does not belong to me,_

**The Reason **

Draco looked at his watch, _7.50, Hermione is going to be there in 10 minutes_, he thought.  
He was out on his usual evening walk and was now heading back towards the pub.  
The temperature kept falling as the days went on, and now it was starting to get really cold, and the wind just made the temperature fell even colder.  
He looked up at the sign over the door, as he always did before he went inside, it was like he wanted to make sure that it was called the same everyday, why, he didn't know.  
As usual the sign over the door said 'The Second Home'.  
He opened the door and felt the nice warmth from the pub stream out pass him.  
He hurried inside and closed the door, and started to look around to see if Hermione was here yet, but he couldn't see her anywhere.  
_She'll be here, don't worry Draco, the clock's not 8 yet, she'll be here,_ a voice inside his head said to him.  
"Right," he said to himself as he started to walk over to the bar, taking his coat of as he did, "she'll be here"  
"Of course she will" said a comforting voice from his right, he jumped in surprise, he had been walking in his own thoughts and hadn't really paid any attention to what was going on around him until now.  
He looked to his right to see Julia standing with a smile on her face, which wasn't very unusual since she almost always smiled.  
He gave her a weak smile and nodded.  
Draco heard the door open behind him and saw Julia wave, _Hermione,_ he thought as he turned around to look at her.  
She was as beautiful as she always was, and her cheeks were slightly pink from the cold wind outside.  
"I'll tell her to find a table and then I'll go up and introduce you, does that sound all right?" Julia asked looking at him, he nodded his head as a yes and watched her as she walked over to Hermione.  
After placing his coat on a chair that stood against the wall behind the bar, he walked over to the bar and waited for Julia to go up on the stage.  
He looked around trying to see where Hermione and Julia were, but there were so many people that he couldn't really see much, then he saw Julia walk onto the stage, and people in the pub broke out in applause.  
"Oh, wow" Julia smiled as she looked at the people in the pub, "Thank you everyone" she said.  
Draco wondered why Julia always was surprised when people broke out in applause for her, after all they always did when she went on the stage and when she left it, they loved her.  
Julia started speaking again "Well, as you all know, my uncle is in London today and the next few days too, so that means that I'm going to be the one to introduce the first singer tonight" people looked excited at her, as they all thought that she was the one to sing first.  
"Our first singer will be a very good friend of mine" Julia continued, "I haven't heard him sing yet, but I think that he might be an excellent singer who hides it" she smiled at Draco and waved a hand as if saying 'come here'.  
He started to walk past people to get to the stage, it seemed so far away, but he kept going.  
"Ladies and gentlemen," Julia said, looking at the people again, "I would like to introduce my dear friend.. Draco Malfoy"  
Draco walked onto the stage and walked over to Julia, "good luck" she whispered to him and jumped elegantly of the stage.  
He looked nervously around at the people in the pub; most of them looked very unsatisfied with the fact that he was going to sing first and not Julia.  
He took the microphone and looked at it, _Thank Merlin, that Julia learned me how to use this,_ he thought and looked at the people again as he said "Eerm.." he tried to see if he could see Hermione anywhere, but he couldn't.  
"Eerm.." he said again, "The song I would like to sing is a song that I heard one of my first days here and it tells exactly what I feel and what I've wanted to tell He-eerm-someone, for a long time.. The song is called "The Reason" by Hoobastank" he hoped that Hermione was listening.  
_Okay, here we go_, he thought as the music began and he started to sing.

"I'm not a perfect person, there's many things I wish I didn't do, but I continue learning, I never meant to do those things to you, and so I have to say before I go, that I just want you to know,  
I've found a reason for me, to change who I used to be, a reason to start over new, and the reason is you,  
I'm sorry that I hurt you, it's something I must live with everyday, and all the pain I put you through, I wish that I could take it all away, and be the one who catches all your tears, that's why I need you to hear,  
I've found a reason for me, to change who I used to be, a reason to start over new, and the reason is you, and the reason is you, and the reason is you, and the reason is you,  
I'm not a perfect person, I never meant to do those things to you, and so I have to say before I go, that I just want you to know,  
I've found a reason for me, to change who I used to be, a reason to start over new, and the reason is you,  
I've found a reason to show, a side of me you didn't know, a reason for all that I do, and the reason is you,"

The music stopped and applause broke out, some of the people had tears in their eyes and some looked at him with proud faces, even though he didn't know them.  
But he didn't really pay any attention to them he only paid attention to Hermione, he could finally see her, and he wished so badly that she had understood that he sang this song to her, that this was his true feelings, that _she_ was his reason.  
Hermione looked up at him and his eyes caught hers.  
He could see tears forming in her beautiful brown eyes, and as she blinked a tear fell down her cheek, she didn't wipe it off but kept looking into his eyes.


	11. Not Expected

_Disclaimer: It's still not mine, Julia is, and, eerm, the other things that doesn't belong to J.K. Rowling, _

**Not Expected**

The song ended and applause broke out all over the pub.  
Hermione didn't clap with them, she didn't even think of doing it, she didn't think of that there were other people in the pub, and that they were all clapping.  
The words that Draco had sung just moments before, were constantly repeating themselves in her head.  
_Did he sing that… for me?_ She thought.  
When he had fist walked onto the stage she hadn't seen him, she couldn't for all the people, but then she had heard his voice and she knew he was up there.  
She had been listening really closely to what he said when she had heard him saying her name, well no, it wasn't exactly her name, but it sounded like it was what he wanted to say. And the song was telling what he felt, what he wanted to tell someone for a long time, was that 'someone' her?  
She looked up to see if she would be able to see anything now, the people in front of her had moved and her eyes was caught by Draco's right away.  
_He's looking at me_ she thought, _does that mean, that this really were for me?_.  
She felt tears forming in her eyes, but it wasn't tears of sadness as it had been the last few times she had felt tears in her eyes.  
She blinked and she felt a tear run down her cheek, she didn't think of wiping it away, she was just thinking of the words in Draco song, and she kept looking into his eyes.  
If this was really for her, then it had to mean that he really was sorry, that he really did regret everything he had done.  
Hermione felt another tear fall from her eye and run down her cheek, she still didn't wipe it off, she just kept looking into Draco's eyes.  
Julia was now standing beside him and talking to him, Hermione couldn't hear what they were talking about because of the noise in the pub.

------------------ **_Draco's point of view_**, -------------------

Draco wanted so badly to go down and hug Hermione, but he thought better of it, what wouldn't she think if he just went down and hugged her? He still didn't want her to get mad at him.  
They kept looking into each others eyes, and he watched as another tear fell down her cheek, she still didn't move her hand to wipe them of.  
"Why don't you go down to her?" Julia's voice came from the left, "I know you want to,"  
Draco didn't turn to look at her, "I do want to, but I don't know, what she…" he sighed.  
"Come on Draco, you like her, you just sang your heart out to her, told her how you feel through the song, and look at her, she knows that you've changed, otherwise she would not have tears in her eyes" Draco could feel Julia's eyes on him but he didn't want to look away from Hermione.  
"Y-you don't think she'll be upset?" he asked.  
"No of course not, now go down there to her" Julia said really wanting to help, "if you don't go, I'll push you down there" she said with a little laugh.  
Draco turned to look at her, "but what if she-" but Julia interrupted "Nope! No buts! You just go down there to her, okay? If you want a reason to do it then it will be this: You want to talk to her, to be with her, so stop being so nervous, sometimes you just need to take a chance" Julia looked at him with kind eyes, and a look that said "please?", Draco nodded and Julia smiled as he gave her the microphone.  
He looked down at Hermione, who still were looking at him, he sighed and for there second time in 20 minutes he thought _Okay, here we go,_ and he started walking over to her.  
He stopped walking; Hermione had just stood up, _She's not leaving is she? Please no! Not now,_ he thought.  
She started walking a few steps, then she started to run a little.  
She came closer and closer, she was almost at the door now.  
She passed the door; and she didn't even look at it.  
Then something happened, something Draco hadn't expected, his stomach gave a jolt and his heart started beating really fast.


	12. Dance, Dance

_Disclaimer: I don't own nothing, except the things that you know I own, or something. The song in this chapter is called 'Dance, Dance' and guess what, I'm not the owner :P 'Fallout Boy' is._

**Dance, Dance,**

He felt her warm body pressing against his, he felt her head rest on his shoulder and her arms held him tightly around the waist.  
His heart was beating like crazy and butterflies were flying madly around inside his stomach.  
He had wanted to hug her ever since he saw her the first night he came to the town, and today the feeling had been even stronger, but he had been afraid that she would get mad at him if he had done it.  
But she was hugging him now, she was not forced to do it, no, she did it of her own will, and Draco felt happier than he had done when she had forgiven him earlier.  
He wrapped his arms around her, held her tightly for a moment and then placed his head on hers.  
"It was for me.." Hermione whispered as another tear, that Draco couldn't see, fell down her cheek.  
"Only for you" Draco whispered back, still holding her tightly.  
"You really have changed" she whispered with a smile.  
"No, I've just never showed you the real me, until now" he whispered, regretting everything that he had ever said and done to her.  
Even though he hadn't meant it, it had still been very cruel of him and he knew that it had hurt her much, "I'm sorry.." he whispered down into her hair.  
He felt her tighten her hold around his waist "Don't be," she whispered "better show it late than never,".  
He still held her close to him, afraid of what would happen when they would let go, what if she would change her mind?  
He could hear music start behind him, and a guy with a pretty good voice started to sing

"She says she's no good with words but I'm worse, Barely stuttered out, "A joke of a romantic", got stuck to my tongue, Weighed down with words too over-dramatic, Tonight it's "it can't get much worse" Vs. "no one should ever feel like..""

Draco looked up at the stage and saw the guy dancing around as he kept singing

"I'm two quarters and a heart down, And I don't want to forget how your voice sounds, These words are all I have so I'll write them, So you need them just to get by.. Dance, Dance, We're falling apart to half time," the guy dragged Julia onto the stage and started to dance with her, she looked very amused and she started to sing along with him while he smiled really brightly "Dance, Dance, And these are the lives you'd love to lead, Dance, this is the way they'd love, If they knew how misery loved me,".

Hermione now looked up at the stage too, and laughed a little "all the guys are crazy about her" she said and a climes of jealousy came up in her eyes.  
Draco looked down at her, feeling the butterflies go crazy in his stomach, "not all guys" he said, she looked up at him and he immediately caught her eyes.  
He blushed a little as he realised what he had just said, _That was stupid, stupid, stupid. Why do I have to say stupid things all the time?_ he thought.  
Hermione kept looking into his eyes and gave him a little smile while she also started to blush a little as she had understood the meaning of his words.

Julia and the guy were still singing and dancing "You always fold just before you're found out, Drink up its last call, Last resort, But only the first mistake and I..."

Draco looked at Hermione again "Would you like to dance?" he asked her, she smiled at him and said "I'd love to".  
He took his hands from her back and grabbed one of her hands instead, as their hands touched he felt a nice tingling in his fingers.

They walked out to the middle of the floor, the song going on in the background "I'm two quarters and a heart down, And I don't want to forget how your voice sounds, These words are all I have so I'll write them, So you need them just to get by".

Draco twirled Hermione around and caught her again.

"Why don't you show me the little bit of spine, You've been saving for his mattress, love..  
Dance, Dance, We're falling apart to half time, Dance, Dance, And these are the lives you'd love to lead, Dance, this is the way they'd love, If they knew how misery loved me..  
Why don't you show me the little bit of spine, You've been saving for his mattress, I only want sympathy in the form of you crawling into bed with me,"

He twirled her around again, caught her and they danced around again.

"Dance, Dance, We're falling apart to half time, Dance, Dance, And these are the lives you'd love to lead..  
Dance this is the way they'd love, Dance this is the way they'd love, Dance this is the way they'd love, If they knew how misery loved me..  
Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance." the music stopped and so did all the dancing that had been going on in the pub.

Both Draco and Hermione were out of breath because of the dancing.  
Julia and the guy on the stage both bowed to the people in the pub, who were all clapping madly.  
Draco had finally caught his breath again "eer, would you, maybe, like to go for a walk with me?" he asked nervously, looking into Hermione's eyes.  
"A walk would be great" she smiled at him.  
They both got their coats on and walked out of the door.  
Draco was nervous again, he was worried about saying something wrong or doing something wrong.  
He looked down at his hands, then over at Hermione's, _Even her hands looks beautiful_ he thought, he wanted to grab her hand again, and feel that nice tingling, but again he was worried for what she would do if he did it.  
Then he remembered what Julia had said earlier; _stop being so nervous, sometimes you just need to take a chance_.  
Yes he just needed to take the chance.

He moved a little closer to Hermione, and a little closer, they where now only a feet apart.  
He took a deep breath and then he reached out for her hand, grabbed it and held it.  
Hermione didn't move her hand away, instead she looked up at him and smiled, _Merlin, she's beautiful_ he thought and he smiled back.


	13. The Lake

_Disclaimer: Not mine, except the stuff that you know is mine, or something? Yea, anyway, Hermione and Draco and such belongs to J.K. Rowling,_

**The Lake**

Draco and Hermione started to walk down the street, holding hands, "So..eerm..where do you want to go?" Draco asked looking down at her.  
"What about the lake?" Hermione asked back.  
"There's a lake here?" Draco said in a surprised tone, looking a little confused, which made Hermione giggle a little,  
"Yes there is. Not far from the forest. Have you never been there?" she smiled,  
"I can't say that I have, so you'll have to lead the way" he said smiling, and wondering why he had never seen the lake, after all he had been walking around the town everyday since he came here, and he had been in the forest several times.  
"Oh well, it's absolutely beautiful there." she looked a little excited.  
"Well then, let's go" Draco said grinning, and they started to move towards the forest.  
Draco couldn't help looking at Hermione all the time, _She is so beautiful,_ he thought and sighed.  
"What?" Hermione asked a little nervous, looking up at Draco, she had apparently heard him sigh.  
"Erm.. Nothing, sorry" he said quickly and blushed a little.  
"Oh" Hermione said, "it's all right" she said and smiled a little nervously.  
The walked in silence for some time, when Draco decide that he would say something, what that would be he didn't know.  
He opened his mouth, but instead of hearing his own voice, he heard an excided female voice.  
"We're almost there, it's just behind those trees there" Hermione said, pointing at some trees in front of them "come,".  
They walked past the threes and out of the forest and now stood in front of a big beautiful lake.  
It sort of reminded Draco of Hogwarts, this looked very much like the lake that where there.  
The moon was reflected in the water and made the lake look like it was full of glimmer.  
On the other side of the lake he could see some lights from a town, shining like small yellow dots.  
"Wow" Draco sighed,  
"I know, Isn't it beautiful?" Hermione asked with a beautiful smile, "I usually come out here when I miss my friends. It reminds me of Hogwarts, you know, sitting by the lake, looking over it, watching the giant squid swimming around in the water" she had are far away look on her face, and Draco couldn't help but smile as he watched her as she told him about this.  
Hermione seemed to snap back to the reality she was in and looked at Draco, "what?" she asked with a smile as she saw that he had been looking at her with a smile the whole time.  
"Nothing," he said, still smiling, "you just look really beautiful"  
Hermione looked down, blushing a little, and then looked back up with a little smile, "Thank you".  
They sat on the ground, looking out over the lake for some time, taking in the sight, the silence and all the feelings flooding around them.  
They weren't talking together, but the silence wasn't awkward, it was quite comfortable, like when you sit in a nice silence with your friends.  
Draco looked over at Hermione, she was looking at the sky, and he could see the moon reflecting in her eyes.  
She turned her head and looked directly into Draco's eyes.  
They sat like that for a little time, when Draco decide that he needed to say something,  
"Hermione I.." he said at the same time as Hermione said "Draco I.." they looked at each other for a second, then they both started to laugh.  
After a few minutes they had stopped laughing.  
"Sorry I.." they both started at the same time, and then started to laugh again.  
"I'm sorry" Hermione said when they had stopped laughing again, "you go first"  
"No that's all right, you just go first" Draco said smiling  
"Well I.. I just wanted to say that I.. eerm.. that I'm glad that you decided to show me the real you.. I mean, I like real you.. the real you is nice and sweet and.. kind, and not like the person you pretended to be.. he was more like.. well more like your… erm… your"   
"Father," Draco finished for her.  
"Well, yes, I guess. I'm sorry" she quickly said when she saw the look on his face, he looked a little sad and a little mad as well.  
"No, no, don't be," Draco said, looking like he had just snapped out of some kind of trance, "it's all right.. I mean, he was sort of my inspiration," he continued, trying to give her a smile, but it didn't look very convincing.  
"Let's talk about something else?" Hermione said, knowing that the subject about his father was painful to talk about for him.  
Draco gave her a more convincing smile this time and nodded his head "Yeah, lets talk about something else".  
She smiled at him and looked like she was about to say something when she suddenly looked very chocked, "Oh my god! Ron!" she screeched.


	14. A Lot Of Forgetting

_Disclaimer: Still not mine, but J.K's!_

**A lot of forgetting **

"Oh no! No, no, no," Hermione started to mumble to herself.  
Draco turned around quickly, and started to look around, expecting to see Ron, but couldn't see anyone.  
He turned back to look at Hermione, but she wasn't there, "Hermione?" he looked around and saw that she was walking back towards the forest.  
"Hermione" he called as he ran towards her.  
"How could I forget?" she mumbled confused,  
"Hermione, please, what is it?" Draco tried to ask, Hermione looked at Draco, she hadn't realised that he had been right behind her,  
She looked very confused and spoke in a weird and fast voice "I... eerm… I.. and then Ron… and I should have… but then you… and Julia said… and I.." she moved her hands around in the air and started to walk faster.  
"OH NO!" she half yelled shocked and her body got totally stiff, her eyes starting to fill with tears of frustration, "what if he's already on his way to get there? Oh, what am I going to do? He'll flip out when he finds out that I'm not there! Oh no, no, no!"  
Draco was totally confused, he had no idea of what she was talking about, but he knew it had something to do with Ron.  
"Hermione, is there anything I can do?" he tried to ask, but she just shook her head and started to walk even faster, still mumbling to herself.  
"Where did that letter go?" she mumbled "how could I forget it?", she gasped "what if someone took it? Oh no! I need to find Julia!" she said, and started to run towards the town, forgetting Draco and not looking back at him to say goodbye or anything.  
Draco was standing in the middle of the forest, watching as Hermione ran the other way, watching as she became smaller and smaller, feeling his heart break a little.  
When he couldn't see her anymore he sighed deeply, feeling small and alone.  
Sad as he now were, he started to walk slowly back to the pub.

------------------------- **_Hermione's point of view_**, -------------------------

She ran as fast as she could back towards the town saying things like "I am so stupid! Aargh, how could I forget that! This is not good, not good at all!" all the way.  
She came to the pub, and quickly got inside and started to look for Julia.  
But she didn't have to look long, because as she came inside she heard Julia's voice introducing the song she was about to sing.  
_Oh no!_ Hermione thought, now she would have to wait with talking to her until the song was over.  
She looked up at the stage as Julia started to sing "I linger in the doorway, of alarm clock screaming, monsters calling my name, let me stay, where the wind will whisper to me, where the raindrops, as they're falling tell a story,"  
Hermione started to walk towards the table that she had been sitting at earlier when she had started on the letter to Ron together with Julia,  
"In my field of paper flowers, and candy clouds of lullaby, I lie inside myself for hours, and watch my purple sky fly over me,"  
The letter wasn't on the table or under it, instead there was a drunk man sitting there, trying to sing along to Julia's song but obviously didn't know half of the words.  
"don't say I'm out of touch, with this rampant chaos - your reality, I know well what lies beyond my sleeping refuge, the nightmare I built my own world to escape,"   
Hermione started to freak out, where could that letter be? She knew she hadn't taken it with her when she had left the pub earlier, so it must be somewhere in the pub, unless someone had taken it, "In my field of paper flowers, and candy clouds of lullaby, I lie inside myself for hours, and watch my purple sky fly over me,"   
She went over to the bar, maybe someone had found it and laid it on the bar so the person who had forgotten it could get it back, but no, no letter at the bar either,  
"Swallowed up in the sound of my screaming, cannot cease for the fear of silent nights, Oh how I long for the deep sleep dreaming, the goddess of imaginary light, In my field of paper flowers, and candy clouds of lullaby, I lie inside myself for hours, and watch my purple sky fly over me,"  
The song ended and the music stopped, and all the people in the pub broke out in applause, "Thank you," Julia smiled.  
Hermione made her way through all the people to get over to Julia, "Julia! Julia I need to talk to you!" Hermione called and caught Julia's eyes.  
Julia saw the frustrated look on Hermione and quickly made her way over to her, "Is everything all right?" she asked worried,  
"No! Nothing is all right, I can't find the letter we wrote to Ron earlier! What if he's already on his way to France? What if I-" Julia held her hand up in front of Hermione,  
"Don't worry Laura, I've got the letter right here," she said as she took the letter out of the front pocket of her jeans, "after you left, I saw that you had forgotten the letter, I was going to give it to you before, but I didn't want to interrupt you and Draco," she smiled "you looked so cute. Hey where is he by the way?" she asked looking around and then looked back at Hermione whose eyes had gone wide "what is it?" Julia asked,  
"I forgot about him," Hermione said, her voice was barely a whisper, "oh, he must hate me right now," tears started to form slowly in her eyes,  
"Who? Draco?" Julia asked, "Oh I'm sure he doesn't hate you, how could anyone ever hate you? I'm sure he'll understand," she said comforting wiping a tear away from Hermione's cheek, "come on, let's go and send this letter to your friend Ron and then we can go look for Draco and you can explain everything to him, I'm sure it'll all be all right, okay?"  
"Okay" Hermione nodded and followed after Julia.


	15. The Next Morning

_Disclaimer: Oh look, more characters I don't own, who ever knew that it could be depressing to write a fic? Haha,_

_Anyway, the belong to J.K. Rowling_

**The next morning**

The sun was starting to crawl slowly inside his room, as he sat on his bed.  
He was looking at a picture of his friends and himself, it had been taken in their sixth year at Hogwarts, and they were all standing in their school uniforms outside of Hagrid's hut.  
Well, he wasn't exactly looking at all of the three persons on the picture, he was looking at the girl on it, the girl he was in love with, the one who his heart belonged to.  
"Hey Ron" as voiced called through the door and brought him out of his own thoughts,  
"What?" he called back,  
"There's a letter for you" his sister called,  
_It must be from Hermione,_ Ron thought and jumped to his feet and ran to the door.  
"Where is it?" he asked when he opened the door and looked at his little sister,  
"Relax, here," Ginny said as she handed him a letter.  
He took the letter from her and slammed the door,  
"Hey!!" Ginny yelled annoyed through the door.  
He didn't pay any attention to his sister but ripped the letter open and started to read it,

_Ron,  
I'm sorry that I haven't been writing back to you, but you need to understand that I need some time alone.  
Some time without you and the others, some time away from everything.  
Please understand that Ron.  
I'm not coming back and don't come to France, please Ron, just let me be alone.  
I'm not hurt, nor sick, not anything, I'm fine, don't worry.  
And please Ron, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but, please stop writing to me.  
I just want to be alone for some time, okay?  
I hope you're all doing alright._

Hermione, 

Ron starred at the letter for a moment, not quite understanding what it meant.  
After a few minutes he made a decision and found a quill and some parchment and started to write a letter for Hermione.  
When he had finished the letter he went over to a beautiful white owl, which sat in a cage next to his own owl.  
"I need your help with something" he told the owl.

------------------------- **_Draco's point of view_**, -------------------------

The sun was shining through his window and he looked at his clock, 7.00 am, it said.  
He stretched and got out of bed, he hadn't slept very well, the events of last night still went through his mind, over and over again.  
After he had been left in the forest, he hadn't felt very good, it wasn't because he was sick, but because he felt so sad.  
He had watched Hermione run away, not even noticing him or saying goodbye.  
Maybe she just wanted a reason to get away from him?  
No, then she would have left before, wouldn't she? And she wouldn't have let him take her hand, would she?  
He brushed his teeth and looked at his reflection in the mirror.  
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair and then got dressed and started to walk down to get some breakfast.  
"Where were you last night?" Julia's voiced reached his ears as he walked down the stairs, he looked up and saw the he was the one she was talking to.  
"Here," he said,  
"Laura and I were looking for you for hours," Julia said, "you know, she really sorry that she forgot you,"  
"She is?" Draco said, feeling slightly better and sat down on a barstool,  
"Yeah, you should go talk to her," she said pouring him a glass of orange juice.  
She looked up and smiled, "well maybe you won't have to" she said looking over his head.  
Draco turned around and saw Hermione walk into the pub and their eyes met.  
She walked over to him, looking embarrassed and a little sad.  
She stood in front of him for a moment, looking like she didn't really know what to say,  
"I'm so sorry," she finally said with a tear in her eye, "I can't believe that I forgot you, that I didn't tell you why I left, and I didn't say goodbye or anything. Oh please don't be mad at me, I'm so sorry"  
"Mad at you? I was worried that you might be mad at me, I mean, I thought that you maybe left because you realised that you didn't want to have anything to do with me and such" Draco said,  
"No, of course not, it was just, eerm, something, it's not important now.. but... oh I'm sorry," she said and threw her arms around him and hugged him and he hugged her tightly back.


	16. Ron's Decision

_Disclaimer: They don't belong to me, I don't belong to them.. okay that last bit was a lie.. eerm yea.. _

**Ron's Decision,**

After they had let go of each other, Hermione sat down on a chair next to Draco and they started to talk a little.

"I see everything is going good here," Julia smiled, walking behind the bar.

They both smiled back at her,

"Mr. Fem again?" Draco asked pointing at a coffeepot that Julia held in her hand.

She laughed a little "Who else? Lord, that man drinks so much coffee, I'm surprised that he's not sick, I mean all that coffin must do something to you" she said looking over at Mr. Fem.

"Oh well, I guess that'll always be a mystery." She said more to herself than to the others.

She looked back at her two friends "Oh right, sorry I completely forgot to ask, are you guys hungry?" before any of them had a chance to answer Julia had disappeared into the kitchen.

A moment later she reappeared behind the bar with to plates.

"Here you go" she said as she placed a plate in front of each of them and a glass of orange juice in front of Hermione, "enjoy,".

They both looked amazed at their plates.

They were full of food, as always, but they still couldn't help but be amazed every time they saw all the food, it was almost like eating at Hogwarts.

There were pancakes with syrup on the top, there were scrambled eggs, bacon, mashed potatoes, biscuits and different kinds of fruit.

It all looked really delicious and they both started to eat, and they didn't talk to each other until they were done.

They sat at the bar for a few hours and talked about everything and nothing.

They both thought about how good it felt to talk to each other, and wished they had started to talk earlier.

At about 2 pm Julia came walking over to them "I'm sorry to interrupt you two, but, Draco? Could you keep an eye on the place here? I have to go pick up a book, I'll be back again soon"

"Of course Julia" Draco replied, _As long as no one wants me to make coffee,_ he thought.

"Thank you," she smiled and grabbed her coat and walked outside.

------------------------- **_Ron's point of view_**, -------------------------

"Okay Hedwig, this is for Hermione" Ron said, as he tied the letter to the owl's leg, Hedwig hooted to tell him she understood.

"I don't remember where her cousin lives so I'll follow you, okay?" Hedwig hooted understanding again, "good,".

As she set off and started to fly upwards Ron mounted his broom, kicked of from the ground and flew after her.

Hedwig flew over lakes, small hills and many forests and Ron followed.

After what seemed like a few hours Hedwig started to fly downwards.

_But we're still in England,_ Ron thought as a little town came into sight.

Hedwig flew down towards the town and Ron followed.

They came closer and closer and Ron, not wanting to get seen by muggle's, decided to stay a little away from Hedwig, but kept a good eye on her.

He saw a girl walk out from one of the buildings in the town, and then saw that Hedwig started to fly towards the girl.

_What the hell are you doing you stupid bird!? That's not Hermione!_

Hedwig hooted, the girl looked up at the sky and smiled as she saw the owl, _Wow, she's beautiful,_ Ron thought _No, no, stop that! It's not Hermione,._

"Hey there," the girl said as Hedwig got closer to her.

The girl stretched her arm out so the owl could land on it, "What a beautiful owl you are" she said as Hedwig landed.

Hedwig hooted, "And what've you got there? A letter?" the girl smiled, "for Hermione I assume? Is it from that Ron guy?" the girl asked and Hedwig hooted again.

"I see, well, why don't you wait out here, then I'll go and get her, I'll be right back"

Hedwig flew up in the sky again and landed on a roof top.

Ron, who had landed on the ground and was now hiding behind a wall, was starting to get a little confused.

He saw the girl walk over to the building she had come out from, and he could now see that it had been a pub, _The Second Home_ a sign over the door said.

The girl opened the door and called inside "Laura, can I talk to you for a moment? Out here?".

_Who the hell is Laura and why did that girl call her? The letter's for Hermione!_ Ron thought.

The girl waited in the door opening for a moment, then walked out with another girl following after her.

_Hermione?_ Ron though when he saw her, No_, it can't be, the girl called her Laura, but it looks like her, doesn't it? It must be her. It is her!_

"What did you want to talk to me about?" asked Hermione,

"It seems like Ron has send you another letter," the girl said as Hedwig flew down and landed on her arm.

"Oh," Hermione sighed and took the letter from Hedwig.

She opened the letter and started to read it as the girl started to stroke Hedwig.

"Oh lord," Hermione sighed after she had read the letter,

"Is everything alright?" the girl asked,

"No, it's not alright!" Hermione said "He won't listen to me Julia! I don't know what to do, he just won't give up,"

The girl called Julia gave Hermione an understanding look, "Oh, but try to look at it from his point of view: He obviously has really strong feelings for you and he doesn't want to lose you-"

"But why can't he see that I don't feel the same for him?! I love him, of course I do, but as a brother." Hermione said "I used to like him that way, but now I don't, I've moved on,"

"I know darling" the girl called Julia said, "but have you said that to him? Have you told him that you don't feel the same for him?"

"No" Hermione said with a sad face "I can't. I… I don't know… I don't want to see him. And I just don't want to talk to him, I just want him to leave me alone and stop bothering me, but it seems like he can't understand that,"

Ron felt his heart break into a million pieces, and a tear fell from his eyes.

She didn't want him there, she didn't want anything to do with him, why had he been so blind to see that?

"Don't worry darling, I'm sure it will all work out," Julia told Hermione,

Hermione nodded her head and said "I think I'm going to go inside again,"

Julia smiled "Alright, I'll see you later then," she said as Hermione walked inside the pub.

Ron sank to the ground, trying to hold the tears, which had formed in his eyes, back.

What had happened? Why was the world suddenly such a mess? Weren't they good friends before she had left?

He couldn't hold the tears back any longer, so he just let the tears run from his eyes and he felt the warm marks they left on his cheeks.

"Are you alright?" a kind and concerned voice asked.


	17. A New Stranger

_Disclaimer: Not mine, J.K. Rowling's… except for Julia and yadda, yadda, yadda,_

**A new stranger**

He looked up at the person and his eyes were caught by a pair of beautiful sea blue eyes.

It was the girl Hermione had been talking to before, Julia.

"I'm fine, eerm, fine, thank you" he mumbled and tried to wipe the tears away from his eyes.

"I can see that that's not true, you're crying," she said, her voice sounding a little sad.

"I just got something in my eye, that's all" he said nervously and rubbed his eyes, trying to make it look like they were itching.

She grabbed his hand and moved it away from his eyes, "you don't have to hide it, there's nothing wrong with crying," she said and sat down next to him "Do you want to tell me what's wrong?" she asked friendly and inquiringly.

He looked at her with amazement, for her he was a complete stranger but still she seemed like she cared, like were he her friend.

He though of what he had just heard and tears started to form in his eyes again, he looked at the beautiful girl beside him and saw that she had a concerned look on her face.

He blinked and a tear ran down his cheek, he tried to hide it but Julia stopped him from it and said "Just let it out, it's better than to keep it inside," and gave him a little smile.

"You… you shouldn't be talking to me," he mumbled, looking at her,

"And why shouldn't I be talking to you?" she asked kindly,

"I… because I'm…" he sighed and another tear ran down his cheek "because I'm Ron," he said looking into her eyes.

Her eyes widened and she gasped, "Oh no," she said looking him deeply in the eyes, "have you been here the whole time? Did you hear it all?" she asked and he nodded sadly.

"I… I'm so sorry" she said honestly, "oh, I… she wouldn't have wanted you to find out like that,"

"I guess it doesn't really matter" he said sadly, "she doesn't want me to be near her,"

"I'm so sorry Ron," she said, her eyes starting to fill with tears as well, "is there anything that I can do for you?"

"Yes" he sighed "please don't tell her that I was here, please?"

"I won't, don't worry, she'll never know if you don't want her too" she said looking him in the eyes again,

"Thank you," he said, looking at her,

"Do you… do you want to talk about it?" she asked,

"You don't have to do this… I know you're her friend, and I don't want to… you know"

"You won't, trust me, I'd be glad to talk to you," she said,

They looked at each other for some time, while Ron tried to figure out where he should start.

He looked down at his hands, "I… it's just… I've been in love with her for so many years now… since the first year we went to school together… she's so smart… and… our fourth year… there was a ball and she looked so beautiful… I got so jealous of the guy she was with… I'd hoped she would go with me, but I was too late… and once… she kissed my cheek and I felt all these butterflies going crazy in my stomach… and last year… I don't even want to think about it… I was so stupid, I wanted to make her jealous, but… and before she left… everything was going so well… I hoped that she felt the same way as me… but…" tears were running down his cheeks, "she don't want to have anything to do with me… and I don't know what to do… I…"

Julia looked at him with sad eyes "I'm so sorry Ron, I wish there was something I could do to help you," she said as she wiped some of the tears away from his cheeks with her hand.

He, somehow, felt a little less sad when her hand touched his cheek, and he didn't know why.

He looked into her eyes, which were sad with a kind of apologising look in them.

"I'm sorry" Ron said after a few minutes, "I… It's weird… I… sorry,"

"You shouldn't say sorry Ron," Julia said "there's nothing to be sorry about"

"I just told you all of this… I… I bet you'd much rather be somewhere else than here listening to my problems"

Julia smiled at him, "I would never leave someone to cry and be alone with their problems" she said "no matter if they are strangers or not, and, well, I can't call you a total stranger" she looked like she had just realised something "oh, but _you_ could call _me_ a total stranger. I'm sorry I completely forgot to introduce myself, my name is-"

"Julia" Ron finished looking at her,

She looked surprised at first but then her look turned sad again, "oh, right, you heard it all,"

Ron turned his look to the ground as he thought about the conversation again, tears forming in his eyes again.

Julia placed her hand comforting on his arm, "I know it's hard," she said as he looked into her eyes again.

"But I… I guess its better that you know, right?" she said, her voice sounding sad again, "I'm sorry,"

Ron nodded, and he started to cry silently again.

Julia put her arm around him, trying to comfort him, like were they some of the best friends, "I'm sorry Ron" she whispered in his ear as he cried into her shoulder.


	18. A New Visitor For 'The Second Home'

_Disclaimer: Eerm, lets just say the same as last time, haha_

**A new visitor for 'The Second Home'**

"I wonder why Julia is taking so long," Hermione said a little worried, looking around the pub.

"Don't worry," Draco said to her, comforting "she properly meet someone and they started to talk, she'll be back again soon," he smiled at her, and his words made her calm down a little.

"Yeah, I guess you're right" she said.

"So, what was it that she wanted to talk to you about before?" he asked.

"Oh, eerm, nothing," she said, not wanting to tell him about the letter from Ron "she, eer, just wanted to ask if there was a book I wanted her to get me while she was in the book store,"

"Oh, okay" Draco said.

They sat in silence for some time when Hermione looked at the door to the pub.

"Why isn't she back yet? It's starting to get dark outside," she said worried.

Draco was starting to get worried too, but tried to hide it so he wouldn't make Hermione more worried.

"I think we should go look for her" Hermione said now looking at Draco, "What if something's wrong? If something happened to her?"

"I think you're right" Draco said "let's go"

They grabbed their coats and walked out of the pub.

------------------------- **_Ron's point of view_**, -------------------------

Julia ran her hand through his hair in a comforting sort of way.

"It will take some time. But someday you'll see that it's better this way," she whispered into his ear.

He sighed deeply, and nodded into her shoulder.

"It's better than to live in a lie, right?" she whispered again, and Ron nodded his head again.

"We live and we love," she whispered "we love and sometimes we get hurt" she stroke his hair "as we get hurt, we get stronger," she whispered looking him into the eyes "and as we get stronger it will be easier for us to get over a broken heart"

He smiled "why does that make so much sense?" he asked.

"Because it's true or maybe it's because I said so" she smiled back and he laughed "oh, I made you laugh" she smiled wider.

"Yeah, you did" he said back, he felt so comfortable with her, he felt like everything was going to be alright as he sat there with her.

He felt like it would be easier to get over Hermione, as he sat there looking at Julia, and as she smiled at him he felt all warm inside.

"So, you're feeling a little better then?" she asked, giving him a little worried look.

"Yeah" he nodded.

"Good" she smiled, "trust me, there'll be others," she looked into his eyes "tons, no, two tons".

Ron couldn't help but laugh again and she smiled at him and started to laugh as well.

"Hey" she said after a little time "it's starting to get pretty dark, and I don't know how far away you live, but I was wondering if you might wanted to stay here for the night?" she asked "We've got a free room at the pub where you could stay and then you could leave tomorrow before Hermione got up so she wouldn't see you"

"Really?" he asked, he didn't really want to go home right now, partly because he knew that he would get a lot of questions from his family as to why he looked like he had been crying and partly because he was afraid that he wouldn't see Julia again if he left now.

"Of course" she smiled "I wouldn't like you to leave when it's this dark, especially in times like these"

He wondered for a second what she meant about 'Times like these', had the muggle world been warned about Voldemort and his Death Eaters as well or was it just because it was so dark outside.

Well he didn't really care about it, the thing he cared about was that he could stay here and he would be able to keep away from his parents a little longer and plus he would be able to be with Julia for a little longer.

"I would love to stay," he said looking at her "I am a little tired and I don't want my parents to see me like this"

She smiled and nodded understandingly.

"Julia?" a voice called from a place a little away from them.

"Julia, where are you?" another voice, Ron could recognise as Hermione's, called.

"Perfect timing" Julia whispered to him and looked around the wall.

"Come on," she whispered "they're going the other way, which means we can sneak in without them noticing"

He nodded his head and stood up beside her.

"Ready?" she asked and stretched her hand for him to take it.

"Ready" he smiled and took her hand; he felt a nice warm feeling as their skin meet.

"Okay, now" she said and they ran towards the pub hand in hand.

Ron tried to see if he could see Hermione and the other person that had been calling for Julia, but luckily they weren't anywhere near there.

"It's right here" Julia said and opened a wooden door, where the sign he had seen earlier hung over.

The warmth from inside the pub washed over their body's as they stepped inside.

"Aah Julia, finally" a mans voice called "do you think you can get me a cup of coffee dear? The boy your uncle hired to work here keeps refusing to go near the coffee machine"

Julia laughed softly at what the man said.

_She has a lovely laugh, and she's very beautiful too,_ Ron thought _No, stop it Ron! Don't do this to yourself, you're not even over Hermione yet!_.

He looked at Julia as she said "I'll be right back Mr. Fem, I just need to follow my friend to his room" to the man in front of her and gestured to Ron.

_Or maybe I am,_ he thought, _I mean, isn't it a possibility?_

Then a voice he couldn't recognise as his own spoke inside his head _Or maybe it's because you want to find someone who can make you get over her quickly so you took the first one you could find, who just happened to be Julia_.

"No of course not" he said, feeling offended that a voice inside himself could say that.

"Sorry?" Julia said looking at him confused.

"I... Oh… Eerm… sorry, nothing" he said embarrassed and feeling his ears turn red, he hadn't realised that he had said it out loud.

She smiled at him and then pointed at a door in the other end of the hall they were walking, he hadn't even noticed that they had walked upstairs.

"You can stay in this room," she told him and took a key out of her pocket.

She opened the door and let him walk inside "We're on the second floor, so it's not very possible that Hermione will walk past your room" she smiled and placed the key on a bedside table.

"Thank you," he smiled as he sat down on the bed.

"Your welcome" she said "the bathroom's there," she pointed at a door on the opposite wall "and if you need anything then-eer-oh right" she said "well, let's just say that I'll come up and check on you instead, okay?" she smiled.

"Very okay" he smiled back at her.

"Are you hungry or anything?" she asked him and his stomach grumbled at the thought of food, "I guess that's a yes," she said and laughed softly again.

He smiled embarrassed and nodded his head.

She smiled, "Okay then, I'll just go and take care of the customers and then I'll come up with some food for you, sound alright?" she asked smiling.

"Yes, that sounds very alright, I haven't eaten all day. Thank you" he smiled at her and she left the room.

After she had left he began a new argument with himself and his mind.


	19. Maybe Not Yet

_A/N : I'm not sure if anybody is still reading this fic, but I guess if I get no response then nobody's reading and then I guess I will delet this, anyways here next chapter, _

**Maybe not yet,**

"Here you go Mr. Fem" she smiled and handed him a cup of coffee.

"Aah thank you Julia dear. That was about time" he said, taking the cup.

"I know. I'm sorry. Draco has had some problems with the coffee machine and he tries his best to stay away from it" she said with a smile as she heard the door to the pub open.

"Hello you two" she said as Hermione and Draco got closer to her.

"Julia! Where on earth have you been?" Hermione asked, looking sternly at Julia.

"The bookshop" Julia lied convincingly, "and here"

"But… We've been looking all over for you! You were nowhere!"

"Well I meet someone and we started to talk and well you know" Julia said truthfully and smiled again.

"Told you so" Draco smiled at Hermione, who gave a sigh, "So did you get your book?" he asked.

"No, unfortunately the book hadn't gotten there yet, so I'll have to wait" she answered.

"Hey Julia dear," Mr. Fem suddenly said, and Julia looked pleasantly questioning at him "where did your redhead friend go?"

"Redhead friend?" Hermione asked looking at Julia.

"Yes, yes, this tall guy with freckles all over his face and bright red hair" Mr. Fem told Hermione.

Julia cursed herself and Mr. Fem in her head and she wished that he hadn't opened his big mouth.

Hermione gave Julia a weird look and Julia knew that the description must have made her think of Ron.

"Who's that?" Hermione asked, still with a weird and now questioning look on her face.

"Oh, you know the Samson's oldest son" Julia lied again, thinking of the only other person she knew with red hair.

"The one who changes his hair colour all the time?" Hermione asked and Julia nodded "Oh"

"I'm not so sure tha-" Mr. Fem started and Julia quickly said "Are you two hungry?" to avoid Mr. Fem from giving them more clues that Ron was there.

"Oh well, I could do with some food," Hermione said, looking a little curious at Mr. Fem.

"Me too" Draco said and sat down at the bar.

"Great, I'll get you some food right away," she smiled as Hermione sat down next to Draco.

Mr. Fem looked a little offended, first he had to wait for his coffee, then he got cut off when he spoke and now he was being ignored.

He gave a _hmpf_ and walked over to a table in the far end of the room.

"That was a little weird, wasn't it?" Draco said after Julia had walked into the kitchen.

"Yes it was" Hermione agreed, "I wonder if something's up, Julia seems to be hiding something, doesn't she?"

"She does" Draco said just as Julia came back into the room with two plaits full of food.

"Bon appetite" she said after she had placed the plaits in front of them and walked of to clean some tables.

After Draco and Hermione had finished eating Julia came back and took their empty plates out into the kitchen.

Before she walked out again she checked to make sure that they had moved to another table so they wouldn't see her.

When she was sure, she grabbed a tray with a plate full of food and a glass of pumpkin Juice, and she walked unnoticed over to the stairs and up to the second floor.

------------------------- **_Ron's point of view_**, -------------------------

He was lying on the bed in his room, still fighting with himself like crazy, when there was a knock on his door.

He knew that it would be Julia so he jumped to his feet and ran over to the door, opening it to reveal Julia standing outside with a tray with food.

"Hey" she smiled, "I brought you food" she laughed softly as his stomach grumbled again.

"Thanks" he smiled as she handed him the tray.

"No problem," she said, still smiling "I bet you're very hungry,"

He nodded his head since he couldn't speak because his mouth was already full of food.

Julia laughed softly again at the sight in front of her, "I'll leave you to it then" she smiled "I'll be back a little later to see if you need anything," and she stared to walk towards the stairs.

Ron watched her until she had walked down the stairs and was out of sight.

He closed the door with a sigh and sat down on the bed and started to eat again.

After he had eaten he sat and looked out of the window.

He looked at his watch, 8.15, he wondered how long he had been sitting there, when he suddenly heard a voice being carried through the pub.

It was a female voice that was speaking and some music was running in the background.

He walked out of his room and walked towards the stairs, the voice came from below.

His curiosity took over him when people stated to clap.

He walked down the stairs to the first floor, and looked around, the voice came from the floor under need him.

He walked a little down of the stairs, but remembering that Hermione might be there he decided that he would sit down on the stairs where he was so he wouldn't draw attention.

He looked around and saw Julia standing, on something that looked like, a stage, smiling,

"As you all know my uncle won't be back from London in a couple of days, so you still have to stick with me" she smiled as people started to cheer for her.

Ron looked around at the people in the pub, who were all cheering or clapping, when his eyes caught Hermione in sight.

She was sitting at a table by the window, talking to a blond guy who sat with his back against Ron so he wasn't able to see the guys face.

Hermione started to laugh at something the guy had just said, she looked happy Ron thought.

_As long as she's happy then that's what matters,_ he thought _It doesn't matter if it's someone else than me, as long as she's happy._

He heard music start to play and turned his head toward the stage again when Julia started to sing.

_Wow, she's amazing_ he thought as he listened to her singing.

------------------------- **_Draco's point of view_**, -------------------------

"Remember when I hit you back in third year then?" Hermione said with a grin.

They were talking about some of the fights they had had back at Hogwarts.

"Yeah, only to well" Draco said and subconsciously grabbed his jaw, "but I deserved it, you know, you should have punched me some more, with the way I was acting I'm surprised that you've only hit me one time"

Hermione laughed, "Well I guess I tried to stay calm, though it wasn't easy I can tell you"

"I believe you, it was hard for me not to hit myself every time" Draco said as he once again remembered how he had acted, "you know, I'm really sorry about it, all of it"

She smiled "I know, but I forgive you, I understand why you did it and I know that you really didn't mean it"

Draco's mood lightened and he smiled back at her.

He thought about the things that he had wanted to tell her for so long, maybe this was the right time to say it?

"Hermione?" he said and she looked at him with a smile.

"I'm-" he managed to say before Julia started to sing and Hermione turned her attention towards the stage.

_Maybe not yet,_ Draco thought, looking at Hermione, then turned his attention towards the stage as well as Julia sang.

"Believe it or not everyone have things that they hide, believe it or not everyone keep most things inside, believe it or not everyone believe in something above, believe it or not everyone need to feel loved, feel loved, but we don't, and we won't until we figure out, could someone deliver us and send us some kind of sign, so close to giving up 'cause faith is so hard to find, but you don't, and you won't until we figure out.  
I've seen it a lot every time the world turns upside down, believe it or not most of us feel like we're losing ground, believe it or not everyone hate admitting fear, believe it or not most of us wanna know why we're here, why we're here, but we don't, and we won't until we figure out, could someone deliver us and send us some kind of sign, so close to giving up 'cause faith is so hard to find, someone deliver us, just send us some kind of sign, so close to giving up 'cause faith is so hard to find, but you don't, you won't until we figure out.  
Most of us have nothing to complain about, most of us have things we could live without, everyone need advice on how to get along, you don't, we won't until we figure out.  
Believe it or not everyone, believe it or not everyone have things that they hide, believe it or not everyone keep most things inside, believe it or not everyone believe in something above, believe it or not everyone need to feel loved, feel loved, but we don't, and we won't until we figure out, could someone deliver us and send us some kind of sign, so close to giving up 'cause faith is so hard to find, someone deliver us, just send us some kind of sign, so close to giving up 'cause faith is so hard to find, but you don't, and you won't until we figure out, you don't, and you won't until we figure out."


End file.
